US concerned about assassination of indigenous leaders in Peru

The United States expressed concern about the violence in the Peruvian Amazon, following the murder of an indigenous leader and human rights defender that brought the number of activists killed this year in that area of ​​the country to four.

“We are concerned about the death of another indigenous leader and we sympathize with every effort to investigate and punish these crimes”The Washington embassy in Lima tweeted Monday night.

The diplomatic representation alluded to the murder on Friday of the Awajun leader Antonio Yagkuag Baais, head of the urban and native peasant patrols of Santa María de Nieva, in the remote province of Condorcanqui, in the northern jungle of the country.

Yagkuag, 57, was shot dead by two hitmen who ambushed him in Santa María de Nieva and fled in a boat down the Marañón River.

The native leader was known in the area for denouncing human trafficking mafias, which led to death threats, according to police.

The government on Sunday condemned the violence against indigenous leaders and called for those responsible to be punished.

This is the fourth murder of an indigenous leader this year in the Peruvian jungle, following the killings of the Ashaninka leader Lucio Pascual Yumanga on November 30, allegedly at the hands of drug trafficking; the Asháninka environmental defender Mario López Huanca, on July 2; and Herasmo García, on February 26.

Crimes against activists are frequent in the vast and remote jungle area of ​​Peru, where the presence of the state is almost nil, and they generally go unpunished.

The Awajún are the second largest native people in the Peruvian Amazon, with some 83,000 people living in some 320 hamlets and villages in the northern jungle, 1,000 km from the capital.

The Ashaninkas are the majority group among the Amazonian peoples of the country, made up of about 120,000 people who live in various villages in the central and southern jungle of Peru.